Jay Peluso of Peluso Open Water (Photo by Chris Smith)
Jay Peluso can’t remember how many open-water swimming events he’s competed in personally, but it’s a lot, and the program he started to help others do the same is contingent upon safe swimming conditions in the James River.
Peluso Open Water began almost a decade ago with about a dozen swimmers, a number that has increased to more than 150 participants. It now operates under SwimRVA, a local nonprofit based at the Collegiate School Aquatic Center in Chesterfield County — the 2008 Olympic Trials pool — where the open-water swimmers hold training sessions seven to eight times a week when the weather is cold. In warmer months, they take to the river rapids in wet suits every other week to train for triathlon or swim-run events.
“It’s always different. You can swim the same section of the river every single week, and it’s never going to be the same because it’s gonna be flowing at a different rate, the temperature is going to be slightly different, the time of year makes a difference,” Peluso says.
A big part of being able to swim in the James is how clean it is, which is why Peluso and dozens of open-water swimmers have begun volunteering with the James River Association to monitor water quality and test for bacteria.
Through the association’s River Rats program, more than 90 volunteers take river samples from spring to fall at 23 sites scattered from Buchanan in Southwest Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay to test for E. coli bacteria — an indicator that the water is unsafe for recreation because of human or animal waste saturation. At high levels, E. coli and other pathogens can cause diarrhea, cramps, rashes, nausea and a host of more serious symptoms. The association posts results online each Friday before the weekend rush to the river.
The river, which provides drinking water for 2.7 million Virginians and yields 6.5 million pounds of commercial seafood annually, is often overwhelmed with a mix of sewage wastewater and storm runoff after a heavy rain, when municipal infrastructure cannot handle the volume of water rushing in and it flows into the river untreated.
The James River Park System encompasses more than 550 acres of shoreline and islands in 14 sections from Huguenot Flatwater to Ancarrow’s Landing.
“We’re lucky we have a relatively fast-moving river most times of the year, so that stuff washes down and our area of the river remains clean,” Peluso explains, referring to Robious Landing Park, near James River High School in Chesterfield County, “but it doesn’t just go away — it goes into the Chesapeake Bay, and that’s something the [James River Association] is really struggling with and helping to fight.”
During the past four years, he says, “maybe three times have we gotten the results back and said, ‘OK, so maybe don’t swim here for a few days,’ and every single time, we kind of knew it was coming because it was after massive rainfalls over a couple of days.”
Peluso says not all areas of the river are equal, though. For open-water swimming, the group steers clear of places close to Dominion Energy’s coal ash ponds or more industrialized areas, such as near Rocketts Landing.
The water testing has a symbiotic effect, he says, noting that as people become more invested in open-water swimming, they’re more eager to take care of the region’s greatest natural resource. “I think making people aware because they’re using it more, one thing leads to another, and we get a cleaner river and more enjoyment out of it,” Peluso says.
